


Keeping My Venom

by voleuse



Category: Gossip Girl
Genre: Community: apocalyptothon, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-15
Updated: 2010-05-15
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:18:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>I know many positions in which to be dead</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping My Venom

**Author's Note:**

> No spoilers. Set sometime after S3 of _Gossip Girl_. Title and summary adapted from _Snake Man_.

Dan could hear the ocean coming for them, sweeping through the city. He stood at one of the windows when that first wave had hit, watched the waters crushing cars against the fifth floor of the Empire until they finally ebbed. He stared, couldn't stop staring, even as Blair panicked behind him, scrolling through her contact list and not getting a single call through.

There was a whisper of cloth behind him, and he shifted to one side, let Chuck stand sentinel next to him.

"I don't know what to--" Dan stopped. He cleared his throat. "It's like one of those made-for-TV movies, you know? Or a poem by Eliot, but it's not haunting, it's not beautiful."

"It's real," Chuck said, and he didn't turn his eyes away from the destruction. Dan watched his reflection, the echo of clouds roiling across his face.

The window glass radiated cold, and maybe that's why Dan shivered. "Do you think it'll stop?" The waves were receding. A single taxi was floating, upside-down, directly below them.

"I think we have to wait," Chuck said.

"For what?" Dan asked.

Chuck touched the glass, and the clouds were rolling back. "For whatever comes."

*

In one of her more Serena-like moments, Serena had convinced the Humphrey-van der Woodsen and Rose-Waldorf clans to fly down to Cabo for the week, in a convoluted togetherness scheme that Dan had been forced to call _Brady Bunch_-like for its sheer optimism. He'd stayed behind to study for a test, with plans to join Blair and Chuck on the Bass jet a few days later.

There were many reasons Dan had to hate his second semester of French, but this was definitely at the top of the list.

Dan had arrived, half-drowned from the downpour of rain, and Chuck was canceling their flight, a scowl on his face. Blair sat on the sofa with her arms folded, and they heard the shrill cascade of alarms before they heard the tidal wave. It was only later that Dan wondered if there had been any time for screams.

*

Most of the hotel's inhabitants fled between the flood's ebb and the freeze, but Chuck had broken from his reverie and noted there wouldn't be anywhere to go. "Every plane is grounded and the streets are a mess," he said. "Even the train station is shut down."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Blair said. "Sit here and wait for another tsunami to hit?" She clutched her cell phone in her hand, and Dan heard the plastic casing creak.

Chuck kissed her on the forehead, and there was no worry on his face. "Lily knows where we are," he assured her. "She won't let the world abandon us."

"Yeah." Dan settled on the sofa and rubbed the goosebumps from his arms. "Wait, how well-connected _is_ Lily?"

"Well enough," Chuck replied, and after quickly embracing Blair, he strode to the room's phone. He picked up the receiver and punched a couple of buttons Dan couldn't see. "Have everyone who's left come to the penthouse," Chuck ordered.

Dan watched him, watched his shoulders tighten before he set the receiver down. "Why up here?" he asked.

Blair sat next to Dan and smiled, calm again. "There's a helipad on the roof."

*

Two handfuls of hotel employees and a half-a-handful of guests huddled in the groups throughout the penthouse suite. Somebody was cursing the non-functioning electric stove, while two bellboys were converting the just-for-show fireplace into a real one, ventilation be damned. It was still early in the afternoon, Dan thought, but the sky was dark through the windows, and he could see frost creeping across the glass.

Blair was dozing under Chuck's arm, and Dan sat on the other side of him. They were sharing a couple of blankets, and Dan had suppressed a half-dozen jokes he wanted to make, because he was pretty sure Chuck wouldn't laugh at any of them. Instead, he watched Chuck rubbing his hand slowly, hypnotically, over Blair's shoulder.

The fire was crackling, and the others crept to the edges of it. Dan could hear glass cracking from the cold, and he edged closer to Chuck, until their shoulders pressed together.

"Why, Humphrey," Chuck murmured, his voice close to a purr, "I had no idea you cared."

"Yeah, well." Dan tugged the blanket higher, rolling his eyes. The fire heightened the shadows of the room, until he could barely see Blair on the other end of the sofa. "I don't entirely despise you."

Something flickered across Chuck's face, but the light of the fire was dim. "I've never inspired high expectations," he said. He shifted, his arm settling in the space between their bodies.

Dan watched the fire dance. "High expectations are all I've got." He looked back at Chuck, twice, and gave in. "Hey, man, I'm sorry." His fingers felt like ice, and he turned his body slightly, faced Chuck as well as he could in the dark. "There's, you know, there's a lot of history, and most of the time you really are a jerk--"

"Humphrey," Chuck said, laughter rich in his voice, "if you're trying to be comforting--"

"Yes," Dan said. "I am, and I'm sorry. I think," he paused, moistening his lips against the cold, "I think you've been a good friend to Serena and Nate, and Lily, for some reason, has a lot of faith in you."

Chuck was silent as he watched Dan, though his breath puffed from his lips like steam.

"And I think," Dan concluded, "you're a better person than you used to be. Which is more than I can say about myself." He narrowed his eyes at Chuck, expecting mockery.

Instead, Chuck stared at him, and a smile bloomed over his face. He looked younger, somehow, and brighter, and maybe he leaned forward just a little, or maybe Dan did, because suddenly their lips were pressed together. Dan wondered whether this was weird, or maybe a little incestuous, but Chuck's mouth was the warmest thing in the room, so it was only natural that Dan would press closer, tuck his trembling hand inside Chuck's jacket. Chuck's arm went around Dan's shoulders, pulling him closer, and then Blair murmured and shifted in her sleep.

Dan jerked back, and the cold air was a shock against his throat, against the blood pounding through his body. "God," he said, "oh, god."

Chuck shook his head, settling Blair back against his chest, his hand stroking down her arm, under the blanket.

"Chuck, I don't know," Dan said, shivering as the cold prickled against him, "maybe it's the whole 'we might die at any moment' thing, but--"

"Shut up," Chuck said, and using his free hand, he caught the collar of Dan's shirt. "Don't wake her yet," he said, more quietly, and then yes, he was definitely kissing Dan this time, and yes, Dan was absolutely kissing him back.

*

One of the hotel's bartenders heard the helicopters first, and after bundling up as best they could, the rest of the group took the emergency stairs up to the roof. One of the guests suggested using part of the bathroom mirror for signaling the pilots, and Blair supervised their efforts as they pried it off the wall and maneuvered it up the stairs.

Dan squinted at the sunlight spilling through the windows, and he wondered if Chuck was so gauche as to keep sunglasses stashed in a drawer somewhere.

Chuck was rubbing his hands together, chafing the cold away, and he glanced at Dan as he scanned the now-emptied suite. "If you speak a word about--"

"Us?" Dan finished, letting a smirk form on his face. "Maybe I'd be more willing to keep my mouth shut with a little incentive," he teased.

Chuck's expression settled into forbidding again, as if the past few days hadn't happened. "What do you want, Humphrey?" He stalked forward. "Part of whatever remains of the Bass fortune? One of my properties in Brazil? Or," he stopped, very close, "more of the same?"

"Maybe." Dan put his hands in his pockets, and heard happy shouts above their heads. "Maybe I need to think about it some more."

Chuck gestured sharply, and Dan exited the suite, Chuck following behind him.

"Or, I don't know," Dan continued, looking over his shoulder to joke, "maybe I'll just tell Blair and see what happens."

"Maybe." And Chuck smiled, a smile Dan had never seen before. "I'd like to see what happens next."

Dan laughed, maybe a little nervously, and then they were on the roof, in full sunlight, and the helicopter was waiting for them.


End file.
